优雅yōu yǎ

Elegant

yōu yǎ, tài yōu yǎ le.优雅，太优雅了。Elegant. So elegant.

优雅 is the normal word for “elegant”. On Bilibili it became a comment you post when someone stays calm and stylish in an awkward spot: a smooth move in a game, a clever save, a stumble turned into a pose.

Took off: 2022
Started in: Bilibili comments
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

In plain Chinese, 优雅 describes graceful people, clothes or manners. As a meme, it praises style under pressure. The bigger the mess, the funnier the 优雅.

It is often doubled: 优雅，太优雅了, “elegant, far too elegant”. You can also say it about yourself, as a joke, when you spill something and pretend it was planned.

How people use it

It is common, mostly in comments and chats. You type it under a video of a smooth trick, or send it to a friend who got out of something with style. About your own clumsy moment, it is a joke.

里昂

我刚才在地铁上差点摔倒
wǒ gāng cái zài dì tiě shang chà diǎn shuāi dǎo
I nearly fell on the subway just now.
最后转了一圈，站稳了
zuì hòu zhuǎn le yì quān, zhàn wěn le
But I spun around and stayed on my feet.
哈哈哈，优雅！
hā hā hā, yōu yǎ!
Ha ha ha, elegant!
旁边的人都在看我
páng biān de rén dōu zài kàn wǒ
Everyone around me was staring.
他们在欣赏你
tā men zài xīn shǎng nǐ
They were admiring you.

More examples

他一个人打赢了五个，太优雅了。
tā yí gè rén dǎ yíng le wǔ gè, tài yōu yǎ le.
He beat all five by himself. So elegant.
饮料洒了，我假装是故意的，优雅。
yǐn liào sǎ le, wǒ jiǎ zhuāng shì gù yì de, yōu yǎ.
I spilled my drink and acted like I meant it. Elegant.

Where it came from

Woshipm traces it to the anime SPY×FAMILY. In one episode, a strict school housemaster who values elegance above all sees a calm save and cries out that it is elegant, utterly elegant. Jiemian adds that the series drew 2.53 million danmaku on Bilibili, and that a line from the game League of Legends, 优雅，永不过时, “elegance never goes out of style”, was popular as background audio in short videos.

On December 15, 2022, Bilibili and the publisher 中华书局 named 优雅 the site’s danmaku of the year. Danmaku, 弹幕, are the comments that fly across a video as it plays. Earlier picks include AWSL, 破防了 and 爷青回.

The original. Bilibili videos with 优雅 flying across the screen in the comments, such as one of a creator calmly drinking wine in a rainstorm. Jiemian’s December 2022 article describes them. Jiemian (in Chinese)